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Snowvivor Korea Day -1 – Seoulmates

“So, baby, nowTake me into your loving armsKiss me under the light of a thousand starsOh, darling, place your head on my beating heartI’m thinking out loudThat maybe we found love right where we areOh, baby, we found love right where we are”

Napakanta ka no? That was my LSS for one week. What’s with this song? Nothing actually. Haha. I just can’t find the right words to start blogging about our trip. It felt like the counterpart of Free during our Indochina adventure. This song was on repeat mode on Mark’s laptop ever since I arrived in Seoul – for 4 nights!. 😛

Anyway, I think part of me was having a hard time because I wasn’t there on the first day of the tour – I know, SAYANG! Good thing I still got to have my own mini city tour. 🙂 So I’ll leave Day 0 and Day 1 to Mevin and start this post with Day -1 instead. Because the weather in Korea during our visit was negative, might as well start the blog with Day -1.

Snow pa ba?

Day -1 covered our pre-travel preparations – booking of flights, applying for a Korean visa, buying winter clothes, rebooking flights, more shopping, meeting over dinner (because it was Melvin’s birthday) and well a little bit of stalking in between. Haha. Sorry naman.

Ocness

When it all started – Seatsale!

I remembered Tikoy sending a viber message to our Indochina group that she booked a flight to Korea for December. She invited us to join her since there will be a tour at the snow park. Libreng ski lesson na daw. Haha. Kath was the first one to book the flights. Melvin and I followed a few weeks after when there was another seatsale. Mura lang naman. Kung madeny, siguro nalimutan na namin ang binayad namin. Haha. (Thank God our visa was granted!)

Melvin and I couldn’t hide our excitement for this trip. I really wanted to visit Korea and see the places they feature on variety shows and Korean dramas, try authentic Korean food and hopefully see my oppas in flesh (Buti pa si Gayle nakapagbuilding hopping sa mga agencies :D).

Samgyupsal and Banchan! Yummers!

Securing our Korean Visa

This was one of the most exciting part of our preparation – I was all alone at the embassy with no internet to send a bbm to Melvin about the status of our visa. It was so difficult without someone to share your agony with. Yung literal na nagpapanic na siya dahil hindi ako nagrereply sa kahit anong messages nya. Hahaha. Sorry Mel. At least I called you right after I left the embassy – while the rain was pouring hard outside. Dramarama effect. But it was all worth it. I was so happy despite the heavy traffic going back to our office.

Visa granted!

Shopping and more shopping!

I guess this was the part I enjoyed the most – looking for nice clothes to wear during the winter season. For fashion. Luckily, most of my coats and jackets were pre-loved and cheap. Winter clothes and accessories are really expensive. Mel and I often found ourselves inside Uniqlo and H&M, our go-to shops when it comes to winter clothes. I can’t remember how many after-work meet ups we had and how many hours we spent fitting and buying clothes and the occasional ‘kaskas’ of my credit card. Mahal. Magastos.Pero kulang pa rin pagdating ng Seoul. Sabi nga ni Tikoy, comfort over fashion.

Side note: Melvin and I kept notes on our phones on what we’ll wear per day. Yes, OC kami eh. Haha.

Shopping pa more!

Viber group finally!

It was only Tyx, Mel, Kath, Stef and I who were having viber convo about our trip. After Kath, Mel and I secured our visas, our group was still silent. Until Stef’s visa was granted. Ayun, pwede na ulit maexcite. Haha. A week before our flight, Tyx added the rest. That’s when we got to know the other people joining us – Phoebe, Gayle, Shie and Mark.

It was kind of weird but when we started talking and getting to know each other in viber, it felt like we have known each other for a long time. Mark thought that we were already friends since our viber thread was long. Haha. Actually, we just found out common interests. Gayle, Shie and I are interested in kdramas and kpop. Daebak! The rest, we just love to eat and were too excited to see snow. 🙂

Dinner meet up

Mel, Tyx, Kath and I met up few days before Mel’s birthday. Tikoy gave us our shirts and IDs. She also gave me last-minute instructions since I will be arriving solo. It was a super fun dinner. We told Tyx that we already had an idea on what the shirt will be because of the blogs we read. Mel even showed Tikoy her winter fashion in Korea from her last visit. Walang ligtas. Bawal mag-ulit ng suot. Hahaha.

TF shirt

Prior to the trip, I introduced Mel to another Korean dish – bibimbap. Since he already tried samgyupsal and banchan from Yedang, I asked him to try bibimbap. Definitely one of my favorite Korean food. So filling. Dapat magpractice kumain ng Korean food or else mauuwi kami sa fastfood. Haha.

Rebooking of flights

For the love of work, I had to move my flight on a later date to attend our company’s party. And I rebooked it again for the third time because of the typhoon. Effort!

Melvin’s update after stalking: Phoebe was with them in Calaguas, Gayle has business connections with Tyx and Shie also joined other TF tours. That’s when I also found out that I already know Mark. He looked familiar. Then I realized that we were dormmates during our freshman year in UP. Wow, small world! I really wanted to know who I will share the room with even though I am used to dorm type rooms. Sorry for stalking Mark. Haha.

Roomates!

There. It was 7 long months of preparation and waiting. After hundreds of viber and bbm exchanges between Mel and I, the occasional sending of the status of our luggage and outfit updates, I finally got to visit the land of Kimchi and my oppas and unnies. Daebak!